Discovery + Streaming Service: TV Review

Chip and Joanna Gaines are the headliners of the newly launched Discovery + streaming service, which will host the revamped “Fixer Upper”, as well as a wide range of unscripted and non-fictional programming.

The year 2021 has started with a postponement of hope, the usual optimism surrounding the start of a new year dampened by the grim reality that all of the biggest crises of 2020 will be with us for a while yet.

The continued quarantine, combined with the winter chill, likely makes Discovery + ‘s January 4 launch one of the best-timed debuts for a streaming service. Sucker and heavy makeover, with an undeniable focus on home improvement (at a time when the luckiest of us are forced to stay home as much as possible), the service peddles the most alluring fantasies. for us in the midst of a pandemic: easy transformations, without domestic complications and (de) housing stability.

Naturally, the faces that represent Discovery + are those of Chip and Joanna Gaines, whose hugely popular HGTV series. Upper Fixator, which ended its five seasons in 2018, will embark on a new iteration – subtitled Welcome to the house – on the service from January 29.

Discovery + has a natural niche in the streaming wars: unscripted, non-fiction programming. Netflix has had some success in reality like Love is blind and Sell ​​Sunset, especially last year, but streamers largely ignored or neglected unscripted series. By bringing together shows from HGTV, TLC, Food Network, Animal Planet, ID, OWN and Discovery Channel under one roof, the service will offer more than 2,500 series (totaling 55,000 episodes) in addition to the original programming, rivaling the catalog of Disney + in its two vastness and predictable (or heartwarming) mediocrity.

Access to Gaines (which appear in several shows beyond the next Upper Fixator season), original 90 day fiancé specials, BBC nature documentaries like Earth, Blue planet and the new in five parts, narrated by David Attenborough A perfect planet – along with select programs from Lifetime, A&E, and The History Channel – will cost viewers $ 4.99 per month (or $ 6.99 per month ad-free), although some Verizon customers can enjoy 12 months for free.

Discovery + did not allocate news screens for the news Upper Fixator critics, but they provided several episodes of Magnolia table, a half-hour cooking show with Joanna, and Courage to run, an hour-long doc crossing Chip’s four-month training to complete a marathon with the cancer journeys of his inspiration and occasional trainer, professional runner Gabe Grunewald. Joanna’s emphasis on ‘simple meals that bring people together’ like fettuccine alfredo or her grandfather’s fatayer (Lebanese meat pies), as well as her unfussy demeanor and beautiful rustic kitchen set and rich, is probably a catnip for fans of her younger-mom relatability. But nothing here gives casual Upper Fixator viewers (like me) have good reason to tune into a 30 minute tutorial for familiar dishes that we can probably digitize in two minutes online.

Courage to run is more involving, but it has less to do with Chip’s misguided stunt than Grunewald’s heart-wrenching cancer episodes, which began at age 20 and somehow didn’t interfere with his athletic ambitions.

The most interesting tale here is the evolution of the Gaines, from basic cable hosts to emerging media moguls. Discovery + is sort of a launching pad for the Magnolia Network, which will replace HGTV’s spin-off DIY network later this year. So far, the Magnolia Network offerings, many of which will debut on Discovery +, have needed personalities that can pop off the screen, or at least not disappear into the background. Pinball machines beginners in Fixer for the first time, on which the Gaines briefly appear, do an impressive condo makeover. But there’s something depressing late-stage capitalist about Millennials using trendy materials and Instagram-friendly tchotchkes to ultimately help raise prices in a real estate market (Salt Lake City) that Redfin is already describing. as “very competitive”. Other offerings are less alarming (or, depending on your taste, escape), but surprisingly niche, with shows devoted to profiling interior designers (Point of view) or transform gardens (House) and backyard (super dad).

Other than offering HGTV drawer bottom ideas and 90 day fiancé Expansions of the franchise, Discovery + has established itself as a new destination for real crime. The most striking original in this vein is the length JonBonet Ramsey: What really happened?, a completely pedestrian (ie unnecessarily macabre) revisit of the 1996 affair. But the most promising true crime show on the streamer is Onision: in real life, a three-part doc starring Chris Hansen (from To catch a predator Fame) on the titular vlogger, whom a fellow creator calls “YouTube’s R. Kelly”. Despite the occasional sensationalism, the first episode suggests at least one series that will explore how relatively new and under-regulated platforms like YouTube and social media, and the intimate microcelebrity they engender, can enable the sexual exploitation of minors. Of all the shows I sampled on Discovery +, this was the one thing that seemed to understand that audiences might want something they haven’t seen a thousand times before.